We made it!
This year has been so many things, so I’ll try my best to lay it out in a way that might make sense.
I like to start off by actually reading what I wrote at the start of the year. I mentioned that I wanted to embark on a path of quiet progress and intentionality. I certainly accomplished that goal. I’ve yet to comb through all the actual things I did accomplish - the numerous reprinting of old favorites for wholesale and customers, the new products, the little collaborations here and there. I know I embraced doing what is meaningful to me and less so for the sake of “sharing” online for just a moment of your eyes. I hope to carry this energy forward into the year of the horse!
In thinking about the many things I can list, including all the highlights, the good and bad, I am mixing in the personal stuff with the business because that’s truly a reflection of my life. I also want to frame any type of challenge as a positive.
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To start, my boys are 2.5 and 5years now - wow! I continue this dance of doing a few minutes of “business-y” things while breaking up their banters and fights. My brain has about 20 tabs open at any given time - this kid’s minimum day; that one doesn’t have school; this event to keep track of; that birthday party to buy a gift for; what to cook this week; cleaning, always cleaning. I am always in deep admiration of stay-at-home moms and single moms or dads for doing all they do!
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I printed at least 3500 times on the press!
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I started working on a print-hopefully-a-print-series that is meant to be riso printed. While I could’ve said, “well, I didn’t finish this…,” I’ll say, this is a work in progress and a step closer to opening a brand new category of things. Hopeful for 2026!
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Yes, I am still working as a dietitian at a dialysis center, helping mostly elderly patients from various walks of life to live a little more healthfully for a better quality of life. A small highlight here is that I also provide some mentorship in counseling styles with fellow dietitians across the country. It all very much adds to my desire to have human connection in all this AI-filled garbage.
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Tiny creations of things that are only fulfilling to me and not for “selling.” There is a constant push and pull in my mind of creating more things on brand and marketing it, so I can sell more vs. doing what I think is actually more meaningful. No matter how my thoughts flow on this, I always return back to where I started. I create to create and I also want to keep pushing the creative envelope by learning new methods, trying out new styles, etc. I like to think in mini illustrations a lot, so I enjoyed finally putting some down to “paper.” Or, actually letterpress printing one, like the brief human-made-no-by-AI starter pack on IG.
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Building my stamina through exercise is still on my forever list, appropriate for start-of-the-year goals! I am proud to say that as a huge, in fact, an even bigger lover of dance than actual drawn art, I’ve been doing at least some ballet barre segment most mornings of the year via all the World Ballet Day dance class videos.
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I bought a tiny tabletop press, named her Ruth, that I’ve brought out twice for events! While it seems like a glorified stamp, it’s my first intro to the public of what it really means to letterpress print.
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I added a handful of new cards and enamel pins AND for the first time, finished my annual zodiac animal print before the year ended.
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I finally used my C&P press (Gertie!) to diecut. For the longest time, I was afraid to use dies for fear that I would damage the press + troubleshooting anything is always a headache. I am so glad that the adjustments Stephen and I made to the press at the start of the year worked out so well for diecutting too.
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Wholesale continues to be a good trajectory to me as I grow my list of retailers!
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This little business is 3 years old now!
So here’s the somber part of my reflections -
I cannot avoid what I think is the biggest elephant in the room - or the world, rather. It is daily bad news all around all the time - the politics, the divisiveness, a strange shift to an era I don’t want to be a part of. It was hard at the start of the year to imagine that my little business would “grow” amidst all the chaos and the dizzying news on tariffs (oof, don’t even get me started on how it’s affecting the healthcare side of my job and world). Standards have dropped. I am simply happy that we are here, clutching onto my family, my tools to think, design and create, my ability to move about in the world.
If anything, everything teaches me to be more resilient, to be more kind, to be more empathetic, to pass these values to my little ones the best I can, to use my art to connect and build community. I am carrying all of this and more into 2026.